20x5. Enlightenment
Writer: Barbara Clegg
Director: Fiona Cumming
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Synopsis: The White Guardian warns the
Doctor of a strange race taking place between several groups of
"Eternals" seeking a prize known as the Enlightenment, while the Black
Guardian continues to pressure Turlough and plot to kill the Doctor.
Review: Most of the
Davison era has been either in the average-to-pretty-good range or has
fallen under the umbrella of "creative but flawed." Unfortunately,
"Enlightenment" proves to be the latest example of the latter. In
theory, the concept of the Eternals has some promise: they are powerful
immortal beings who sense something empty about their existence, they
seem to welcome danger if only to break up the monotony (since they
don't actually die but are just "transferred"), and they find
themselves drawn to mortals (or "Ephemerals," as they put it) despite
being unable to understand us. But only the
Edwardian crew come across with the right air of aloofness and the
appropriately detached reactions to the TARDIS crew and the humans on
board their ship. Their main rival, Captain Wrack, is a Cackling
Villain stereotype who really doesn't belong here.
The first two
episodes, before Wrack becomes more central to the proceedings, are
strong enough, with what seems like an effective mystery for first-time
viewers - at first, the Doctor and his companions seem to be on Earth,
with the reason for the human crew's lapses in memory left unclear,
building to the revelation that they are actually in space. Turlough
also continues to add an element of unpredictability through a more
amoral character than we're used to seeing from companions. Although
the story charts his increasing resistance to the Black Guardian,
culminating in his refusal to kill the Doctor at the end, he is in fact
willing to betray the human crew by revealing their discontent to the
Eternals. It's less clear whether his attempt to ingratiate himself to
Wrack by claiming that he simply wants to be on the winning side is
entirely an act or if he is in fact trying to keep his options open,
and the script probably should have made this clearer.
As for
the Guardians, it's perhaps for the best that they did not, to the best
of my memory, make another appearance in the original series after
this. They were acceptable enough as background plot devices for the
Key to Time trilogy, and introducing a companion who's initially been
strong-armed into the role of would-be assassin was clever. But they
tend to come across as slightly hokey in this installment, and between
them and the inconsistent portrayal of the Eternals, this is not a high
point for portrayal of alien superbeings on Doctor Who.
Rating: *** (out of four)
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